April 4, 2026
Drama in 105 bytes (and counting)
The smallest ELF executable (2021)
Hello World Shrinks to 105 Bytes—Then Someone Yells 83 and Chaos Ensues
TLDR: A new write-up celebrates a 105-byte “Hello, world!” program for Linux, credited to Josh Triplett and powered by clever loader tricks, and the comments explode when someone claims 83 bytes. Fans call it beautiful system-craft, skeptics question comparability and usefulness—sparking a byte-sized bragging war that spotlights deep low-level skill.
Linux’s nerdiest showdown just erupted over a microscopic “Hello, world!” app. The article cheers a 105‑byte version credited to Josh Triplett, after Reddit and Hacker News tinkerers shared tricks like “start with everything zeroed,” “reuse headers,” and “ditch anything the loader won’t strictly need” (receipts and more receipts). Translation: the tiniest legit Linux program that still prints “Hello, world!” ELF (the format Linux uses for programs) just got a crash diet.
Then the comments lit up. One dev rolled in with a flex: 83 bytes. Cue the byte‑count Olympics. The crowd split fast: purists argued tiny tricks are art and celebrate deep system knowledge; skeptics asked if these stunts are apples‑to‑apples (64‑bit vs. 32‑bit? same rules? same kernel?), or just glorified party tricks that might break later. Others defended it as a “parkour for programmers” moment—pointless to civilians, but beautiful to watch.
Jokes flew too: folks riffed on cutting letters from “Hello, world!” to save bytes, debating whether the comma and newline are “feature bloat.” Meanwhile, the article’s author promised an update and credited Triplett—earning kudos for sportsmanship—while the thread kept tally like a boxing match. Verdict from the peanut gallery: whether it’s useful or not, this is peak nerd drama with maximum entertainment per byte.
Key Points
- •A 105-byte 64-bit Linux “Hello, world!” ELF, credited to Josh Triplett, is highlighted as an improvement over prior versions.
- •Optimization tricks include shorter register initialization and relying on Linux’s zero-initialized registers at entry.
- •ELF program header p_filesz can exceed the actual file size if it matches p_memsz, aiding size reduction.
- •Section-header count can be clobbered when the section-header size is set to zero, enabling further compression.
- •The project targets x86_64 Linux (kernel 5.14), uses NASM, outputs “Hello, world!” with newline, and exits with code 0.